Inside the Star

Homeowners turning backyards into green getaways

Seeing Jack Blair at the Royal Botanical Gardens' annual plant sale in Dundas is about as likely as seeing a werewolf in London. But there he was, the former Hamilton Tiger-Cat linebacker clutching a clematis like he used to clutch opposing quarterbacks.

Jack Blair, former Hamilton Tiger-Cat and avid gardener, didn't need the recession to prompt him to use his own backyard as a vacation spot. His Hamilton Mountain garden is full of interest until frost.

Seeing Jack Blair at the Royal Botanical Gardens' annual plant sale in Dundas is about as likely as seeing a werewolf in London. But there he was, the former Hamilton Tiger-Cat linebacker clutching a clematis like he used to clutch opposing quarterbacks.

He might seem like an unlikely gardener, but his own backyard is where he learned to play football and garden.

"Right there is where my dad used to throw me passes," he says pointing to a spot in his yard on Hamilton Mountain (he bought his parents' house). "I'd go up for the ball, and fall in the soft earth – to this day I like digging in the soil."

This was Blair's first visit to the RBG plant sale; he, like hundreds of others, was looking to plump up his plantings because he plans to spend a lot of time in his backyard.

"I didn't need the recession to figure out that your own backyard is a great place to vacation."

The RBG sale was crammed with collectors, connoisseurs and bargain hunters. The two-day event, run by volunteers, raised $74,725. A members-only sale of special shrubs and perennials called Royal Select was up 50 per cent over last year – $17,000-worth of them walked out of the greenhouses in the arms of happy gardeners.

Gardening is having a growth spurt. Vegetable gardening is hot, nostalgia for old-fashioned plants is a new trend, and turning the backyard into a green getaway is a response to the anxious economy.

Leigh Moore is pulling a wagon full of plants and toting 18-month old Camden and 4 1/2-year-old Gwennie through the rows of pots. "I've got a vegetable garden this year, come over when the strawberries are ripe," she chirps as she inches toward the checkout.

Thanks to the "eat local" movement and concern about food quality, vegetable growing is a going concern. In Canada, classes on growing vegetables are selling out, and seed companies had a brisk spring. At the Burlington Public Library, a recent course on vegetable growing was standing room only; at the RBG where classes on vegetable gardening have been languishing in recent years, the trend has reversed, and enrolment numbers are up.

Sales of vegetable seed are up 20 per cent in the United States according to the National Gardening Association, and the pattern is similar here.

"We're having a good year," says Connie Dam-Byl at William Dam Seeds in Dundas. The company has specialized in untreated (by chemicals) seeds for 60 years. "People are looking for unusual vegetables, and new smaller selections that fit in urban yards."

For years Paul Zammit, director of horticulture for the Toronto Botanical Garden, has been showing people how to incorporate herbs and vegetables in small spaces, even mixing lettuces with lilies in containers. Speaking to garden clubs and at hands-on workshops at conferences, he makes it seem possible to create a paradise in a pot.

"We have to redefine containers. They are just something to hold plants, so experiment."

Joel Loblaw, of Earth Inc. Designed Landscapes in Toronto, has been watching the backyard oasis trend grow.

"We've talked to couples who've scaled down financially. They've sold their cottages; they're going to focus on their backyards."

Some of these new garden retreats have included pools, but the essential element is a destination. "A 10-by-10 space where you can have a chair, a drink and read the paper, that's what people want," he says.

Landscape architect Virginia Burt of Visionscapes in Campbellville near Milton likes to create a woodland walk to a pool or cabana.

"People are asking for a getaway in their garden, a cabin-style building or bunkie, where it feels like they don't have to go back into the house for anything."

Burt says the trend to vacation at home has been building for a couple of years. "Some people have made a choice not to spend their time on a highway."

Just outside Buffalo, New Yorker Lynn Weber thought the time was right to start Artisan Sheds.

Her small company builds beautiful outbuildings to satisfy people who want a customized retreat in their backyard.

Prices for cedar sheds range from $8,500 (Cdn) to $16,300, depending on level of trim.

The stylish sheds are built on site and then delivered ready to use to their new homes. "People are longing for a place to getaway but maybe can't afford a cottage, the sheds are a good solution," says Weber.

Though she hasn't had an order from Canada yet, she doesn't rule out shipping across the border.

"We sized them so they are easy to transport, to fit under bridges and power lines."

Limestone Trail in Beamsville in the Niagara region offers a line of sheds and cabins starting at $5,340 installed before adding options like cupolas, working windows and porch overhangs. If a dreamy cedar shed isn't in the budget, then gardeners can look for inventive ways to create escape.

"You have to exploit every square inch of your yard," says interior designer David Johnson in his Hamilton garden.

His favourite spot is a narrow passageway between his house and the neighbour's. The brick walls of the Victorian-era homes create privacy and a place to put outdoor furniture. Shelves with plants, an old wooden cupboard for storage, a vintage table for potting plants, and a café table and chairs make the space multi-functional. "It's completely sheltered, it's cool, it's clean, and I can change the look in an instant," Johnson says.

For several years "decor" items and accessories have been outselling plants at garden centres, as people worked to turn their gardens into outdoor rooms. Now it looks like people are seeking a balance between plants and props.

"We started to see last fall when the stock market crashed, that people were interested in their garden as a safe haven," says Tom Intven, president of Canadale Nurseries in St. Thomas. "There are definitely more people shopping, but they're spending less."

And what people are shopping for surprised Intven.

"There's a resurgence of interest in old-fashioned plants, in nostalgia. People are buying lilacs, roses and mock orange. They want plants with the fragrance they remember from childhood."

The nudge from decor to digging in the dirt explained the keen interest in a plant sale put on by the Mount Hamilton Horticultural Society on a recent Saturday morning. Looking over the long tables of enticing plants was Hamilton teacher Barb Forsyth. "I love to sit in the garden and read, and working in the garden is therapeutic."

As Forsyth loaded plants in her cart, other plant sale veterans were on their way to root out more bargains. "We're on our way to the plant sale at the German Church (St. John's Evangelical Lutheran)," said Dan Inkster. "There's a bake sale too!" Bombarded by bad news about layoffs, tanking stocks and shaky nest eggs, people find comfort in the garden.

"There was a resurgence in interest in gardening during the last recession," recalls Intven. "It was a sign, too, when we put our fruit trees on sale, and we sold out."

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